4 Higher Education Spaces and Protracted Displacement …
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providers often offer programs which they believe would be of use to refugee learners,
such as teacher training courses, yet these models, which are generally incubated in
the Global North, must be adapted so that they are accessible for and meaningful to
refugee learners and provide options for learning pathways.
One of the main questions to emerge from these reflections is just how refugee
learners can learn in such a context. How can learners communicate with institutions of higher learning and with organizations willing to support refugee access to
higher education? How can learners share their needs across languages and cultures,
including learning cultures, particularly if the gaps in understanding are too deep
and too wide? How do providers foster cultural and linguistic ownership and ensure
that courses are culturally and linguistically relevant?
The main challenge for higher education providers entails escaping the lure of
tried-and-true higher education models. How can we avoid the attractiveness of the
concept of humanitarian assistance as a way to “provide”? How can we rise to the
challenge and recognize that the greatest successes shall be found in a participatory
approach that engages and empowers beneficiaries to co-design solutions and make
learning a two-way process? Indeed, the true beneficiaries of all Higher Education
in Emergencies initiatives must be refugee learners and their communities, since
learning is both an individual and a social activity, and the knowledge and skills
refugee learners acquire should also help advance their communities.
4.2.1 Disruptive Higher Education in Fragile Contexts:
Digital Ecosystems and Open Educational Resources
(OERs)
Even in traditional Higher Education (HE) models, education is not synonymous with
taking a course or pursuing a course of study, whether in a lecture hall, a seminar room
or on a learning portal. Education includes knowledge and skill acquisition, instruction, debate, application of acquired expertise, critical inquiry, cultural expression,
and transmission to other members of the community and society.
Refugee youth enrolled in Higher Education programs also seek learning environments that challenge them to learn and grow beyond the textbook or classroom.
While the liberty to think and challenge ideas and opinions is often the norm in universities, such space is limited or nonexistent in refugee contexts. In times of crisis,
insecurity, fear, and destruction, youth are greatly affected and have few opportunities and even less space for free and open thinking. Furthermore, refugee youth are
often too old to qualify for most educational programs and too young to have much
experience or stability to help them through such difficult times (Evans and Forte
2013). Living in dangerous conflict and crisis areas poses numerous challenges for
refugee youth, including the threats of armed groups and tight legal restrictions on
employment and freedom of movement (Burde 2014).
43
providers often offer programs which they believe would be of use to refugee learners,
such as teacher training courses, yet these models, which are generally incubated in
the Global North, must be adapted so that they are accessible for and meaningful to
refugee learners and provide options for learning pathways.
One of the main questions to emerge from these reflections is just how refugee
learners can learn in such a context. How can learners communicate with institutions of higher learning and with organizations willing to support refugee access to
higher education? How can learners share their needs across languages and cultures,
including learning cultures, particularly if the gaps in understanding are too deep
and too wide? How do providers foster cultural and linguistic ownership and ensure
that courses are culturally and linguistically relevant?
The main challenge for higher education providers entails escaping the lure of
tried-and-true higher education models. How can we avoid the attractiveness of the
concept of humanitarian assistance as a way to “provide”? How can we rise to the
challenge and recognize that the greatest successes shall be found in a participatory
approach that engages and empowers beneficiaries to co-design solutions and make
learning a two-way process? Indeed, the true beneficiaries of all Higher Education
in Emergencies initiatives must be refugee learners and their communities, since
learning is both an individual and a social activity, and the knowledge and skills
refugee learners acquire should also help advance their communities.
4.2.1 Disruptive Higher Education in Fragile Contexts:
Digital Ecosystems and Open Educational Resources
(OERs)
Even in traditional Higher Education (HE) models, education is not synonymous with
taking a course or pursuing a course of study, whether in a lecture hall, a seminar room
or on a learning portal. Education includes knowledge and skill acquisition, instruction, debate, application of acquired expertise, critical inquiry, cultural expression,
and transmission to other members of the community and society.
Refugee youth enrolled in Higher Education programs also seek learning environments that challenge them to learn and grow beyond the textbook or classroom.
While the liberty to think and challenge ideas and opinions is often the norm in universities, such space is limited or nonexistent in refugee contexts. In times of crisis,
insecurity, fear, and destruction, youth are greatly affected and have few opportunities and even less space for free and open thinking. Furthermore, refugee youth are
often too old to qualify for most educational programs and too young to have much
experience or stability to help them through such difficult times (Evans and Forte
2013). Living in dangerous conflict and crisis areas poses numerous challenges for
refugee youth, including the threats of armed groups and tight legal restrictions on
employment and freedom of movement (Burde 2014).